Posts Tagged ‘vSphere Client’

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vSphere 5.1 Update 1 Update Sequence

May 6th, 2013

Not so long ago, VMware product releases were staggered.  Major versions of vSphere would launch at or shortly after VMworld in the fall, and all other products such as SRM, View, vCloud Director, etc. would rev on some other random schedule.  This was extremely frustrating for a vEvangelist because we wanted to be on the latest and greatest platform but lack of compatibility with the remaining bolt-on products held us back.

While this was a wet blanket for eager lab rats, it was a major complexity for production environments.  VMware understood this issue and at or around the vSphere 5.0 launch (someone correct me if I’m wrong here), all the development teams in Palo Alto synchronized their watches & revd product in essence at the same time.  This was great and it added the much needed flexibility for production environment migrations.  However, in a way it masked an issue which didn’t really exist before by virtue of product release staggering – a clear and understandable order of product upgrades.  That is why in March of 2012, I looked at all the product compatibility matrices and sort of came up with my own “cheat sheet” of product compatibility which would lend itself to an easy to follow upgrade path, at least for the components I had in my lab environment.

vSphere 5.1 Update 1 launched on 4/25/13 and along with it a number of other products were revd for compatibility.  To guide us on the strategic planning and tactical deployment of the new software bundles, VMware issued KB Article 2037630 Update sequence for vSphere 5.1 Update 1 and its compatible VMware products.

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Not only does VMware provide the update sequencing information, but there are also exists a complete set of links to specific product upgrade procedures and release notes which can be extremely useful for planning and troubleshooting.

The vCloud Suite continues to evolve providing agile and elastic infrastructure services for businesses around the globe in a way which makes IT easier and more practical for consumers but quite a bit more complex on the back end for those who must design, implement, and support it.  Visit the KB Article and give it 5 stars.  Let VMware know this is an extremely helpful type of collateral for those in the trenches.

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VMworld 2012 Announcements – Part I

August 27th, 2012

VMworld 2012 is underway in San Francisco.  Once again, a record number of attendees is expected to gather at the Moscone Center to see what VMware and their partners are announcing.  From a VMware perspective, there is plenty.

Given the sheer quantity of announcements, I’m actually going to break up them up into a few parts, this post being Part I.  Let’s start with the release of vSphere 5.1 and some of its notable features.

Enhanced vMotion – the ability to now perform a vMotion as well as a Storage vMotion simultaneously. In addition, this becomes an enabler to perform vMotion without the shared storage requirement.  Enhanced vMotion means we are able to migrate a virtual machine stored on local host storage, to shared storage, and then to local storage again.  Or perhaps migrate virtual machines from one host to another with each having their own locally attached storage only.  Updated 9/5/12 The phrase “Enhanced vMotion” should be correctly read as “vMotion that has been enhanced”.  “Enhanced vMotion” is not an actual feature, product, or separate license.  It is an improvement over the previous vMotion technology and included wherever vMotion is bundled.

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Enhanced vMotion Requirements:

  • Hosts must be managed by same vCenter Server
  • Hosts must be part of same Datacenter
  • Hosts must be on the same layer-2 network (and same switch if VDS is used)

Operational Considerations:

  • Enhanced vMotion is a manual process
  • DRS and SDRS automation do not leverage enhanced vMotion
  • Max of two (2) concurrent Enhanced vMotions per host
  • Enhanced vMotions count against concurrent limitations for both vMotion and Storage vMotion
  • Enhanced vMotion will leverage multi-NIC when available

Next Generation vSphere Client a.k.a. vSphere Web Client – An enhanced version of the vSphere Web Client which has already been available in vSphere 5.0.  As of vSphere 5.1, the vSphere Web Client becomes the defacto standard client for managing the vSphere virtualized datacenter.  Going forward, single sign-on infrastructure management will converge into a unified interface which any administrator can appreciate.  vSphere 5.1 will be the last platform to include the legacy vSphere client. Although you may use this client day to day while gradually easing into the Web Client, understand that all future development from VMware and its partners now go into the Web Client. Plug-ins currently used today will generally still function with the legacy client (with support from their respective vendors) but they’ll need to be completely re-written vCenter Server side for the Web Client.  Aside from the unified interface, the architecture of the Web Client has scaling advantages as well.  As VMware adds bolt-on application functionality to the client, VMware partners will now have the ability to to bring their own custom objects objects into the Web Client thereby extending that single pane of glass management to other integrations in the ecosystem.

 

Here is a look at that vSphere Web Client architecture:

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Requirements:

  • Internet Explorer / FireFox / Chrome
  • others (Safari, etc.) are possible, but will lack VM console access

A look at the vSphere Web Client interface and its key management areas:

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Where the legacy vSphere Client fall short and now the vSphere Web Client solves these issues:

  • Single Platform Support (Windows)
    • vSphere Web Client is Platform Agnostic
  • Scalability Limits
    • Built to handle thousands of objects
  • White Screen of Death
    • Performance
  • Inconsistent look and feel across VMware solutions
    • Extensibility
  • Workflow Lock
    • Pause current task and continue later right where you left off (this one is cool!)
    • Browser Behavior
  • Upgrades
    • Upgrade a Single serverside component

 vCloud Director 5.1

In the recent past, VMware aligned common application and platform releases to ease issues that commonly occurred with compatibility.  vCloud Director, the cornerstone of the vCloud Suite, is obviously the cornerstone in how VMware will deliver infrastructure, applications, and *aaS now and into the future. So what’s new in vCloud Director 5.1?  First an overview of the vCloud Suite:

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And a detailed list of new features:

  • Elastic Virtual Datacenters – Provider vDCs can span clusters leveraging VXLAN allowing the distribution and mobility of vApps across infrastructure and the growing the vCloud Virtual Datacenter
  • vCloud Networking & Security VXLAN
  • Profile-Driven Storage integration with user and storage provided capabilities
  • Storage DRS (SDRS) integration
    • Exposes storage Pod as first class storage container (just like a datastores) making it visible in all workflows where a datastore is visible
    • Creation, modification, and deletion of spods not possible in vCD
    • Member datastore operations not permissible in VCD
  • Single level Snapshot & Revert support for vApps (create/revert/remove); integration with Chargeback
  • Integrated vShield Edge Gateway
  • Integrated vShield Edge Configuration
  • vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO)
  • New Features in Networking
    • Integrated Organization vDC Creation Workflow
    • Creates compute, storage, and networking objects in a single workflow
    • The Edge Gateway are exposed at Organization vDC level
    • Organization vDC networks replace Organization networks
    • Edge Gateways now support:
      • Multiple Interfaces on a Edge Gateway
      • The ability to sub-allocate IP pools to a Edge Gatewa
      • Load balancing
      • HA (not the same as vSphere HA)
        • Two edge VMs deployed in Active-Passive mode
        • Enabled at time of gateway creation
        • Can also be changed after the gateway has been completed
        • Gets deployed with first Organizational network created that uses this gateway
      • DNS Relay
        • Provides a user selectable checkbox to enable
        • If DNS servers are defined for the selected external network, DNS requests will be sent to the specified server. If not, then DNS requests will be sent to the default gateway of the external network.
      • Rate limiting on external interface
    • Organization networks replaced by Organization vDC Networks
      • Organization vDC Networks are associated with an Organization vDC
      • The network pool associated with Organization vDC is used to create routed and isolated Organization vDC networks
      • Can be shared across Organization vDCs in an Organization
    • Edge Gateways
      • Are associated with an Organization vDC, can not be shared across Organization vDCs
      • Can be connected to multiple external networks
        • Multiple routed Organization vDC networks will be connected to the same Edge Gateway
      • External network connectivity for the Organization vDC Network can be changed after creation by changing the external networks which the edge gateway is connected.
      • Allows IP pool of external networks to be sub-allocated to the Edge Gateway
        • Needs to be specified in case of NAT and Load Balancer
    • New Features in Gateway Services
      • Load balancer service on Edge Gateways
      • Ability to add multiple subnets to VPN tunnels
      • Ability to add multiple DHCP IP pools
      • Ability to add explicit SNAT and DNAT rules providing user with full control over address translation
      • IP range support in Firewall and NAT services
      • Service Configuration Changes
        • Services are configured on Edge Gateway instead of at the network level
        • DHCP can be configured on Isolated Organization vDC networks.
  • Usability Features
    • New default branding style
      • Cannot revert back to the Charcoal color scheme
      • Custom CSS files will require modification
    • Improved “Add vApp from Catalog” wizard workflow
    • Easy access to VM Quota and Lease Expirations
    • New dropdown menu that includes details and search
    • Redesigned catalog navigation and sub-entity hierarchy
    • Enhanced help and documentation links
  • Virtual Hardware Version 9
    • Supports features presented by HW9 (like 64 CPU support)
    • Supports Hardware Virtualization Calls
    • VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI
    • Memory overhead increased, vMotion limited to like hardware
    • Enable/Disable exposed to users who have rights to create a vApp Template
  • Additional Guest OS Support
    • Windows 8
    • Mac OS 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7
  • Storage Independent of VM Feature
    • Added support for Independent Disks
    • Provides REST API support for actions on Independent Disks
      • As these consume disk space, the vCD UI was updated to show user when they are used:
      • Organizations List Page
      • A new Independent Disks count column is added.
      • Organization Properties Page
      • Independent Disks tab is added to show all independent disks belonging to vDC
      • Tab is not shown if no independent disk exists in the vDC.
      • Virtual Machine Properties Page
      • Hardware tab->Hard Disks section, attached independent disks are shown by their names and all fields for the disk are disabled as they are not editable.

That’s all I have time for right now.  As I said, there is more to come later on topics such as vDS enhancements, VXLAN, SRM, vCD Load Balancing, and vSphere Replication.  Stay tuned!

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vSphere 5.0 Update 1 and Related Product Launches

March 16th, 2012

VMware has unveiled a point release update to several of their products tied to the vSphere 5 virtual cloud datacenter platform plus a few new product launches.

vCenter 5.0 Update 1 – Added support for new guest operating systems such as Windows 8, Ubuntu, and SLES 11 SP2, the usual resolved issues and bug fixes, plus some updates around vRAM limits licensing.  One other notable – no compatibility at this time with vSphere Data Recovery (vDR) 2.0 according to the compatibility matrix.

ESXi 5.0 Update 1 – Added support for new AMD and Intel processors, Mac OS X Server Lion, updated chipset drivers, resolved issues and bug fixes.  One interesting point to be made here is that according to the compatibility matrix, vCenter 5.0 supports ESXi 5.0 Update 1.  I’m going to stick with the traditional route of always upgrading vCenter before upgrading hosts as a best practices habit until something comes along to challenge that logic.

vCloud Director 1.5.1 – Added support for vSphere 5.0 Update 1 and vShield 5.0.1, plus RHEL 5 Update 7 as a supported server cell platform.  Enhancements were made around firewall rules, AMQP system notifications, log collection, chargeback retention, resolved issues, and added support for AES-256 encryption on Site-to-Site VPN tunnels (unfortunately no vSphere 5.0 Update 1 <-> vCloud Connector 1.5 support).  Oh yes, sometime over the past few months, VMware Marketing has quietly changed the acronym for vCloud Director from vCD to VCD.  We’ll just call that a new feature for 1.5.1 going forward.  I <3 the Marketing team.

Site Recovery Manager 5.0.1 – Added support for vSphere 5.0 Update 1 plus a “Forced Failover” feature which allows VM recovery in cases where storage arrays fail at the protected site which, in the past, lead to unmanageable VMs which cannot be shut down, powered off, or unregistered.  Added IP customization for some Ubuntu platforms.  Many bug fixes, oh yes.  VMware brought back an advanced feature which hasn’t been seen since SRM 4.1 which provided a configurable option, storageProvider.hostRescanCnt, allowing repeated host scans during testing and recovery. This option was removed from SRM 5.0 but has been restored in the Advanced Settings menu in SRM 5.0.1 and can be particularly useful in troubleshooting a failed Recovery Plan. Right-click a site in the Sites view, select Advanced Settings, then select storageProvider. See KB 1008283.  Storage arrays certified on SRM 5.0 (ie. Dell Compellent Storage Center) are automatically certified on SRM 5.0.1.

View 5.0.1 – Added support for vSphere 5.0 Update 1, new Connection Server, Agent, Clients, fixed known issues.  Ahh.. let’s go back to that new clients bit.  New bundled Mac OS X client with support for PCoIP!  I don’t have a Mac so those who would admit to calling me a friend will have to let me know how sharp that v1.4 Mac client is.  As mentioned in earlier release notes, Ubuntu got a plenty of love this week.  Including a new View PCoIP version 1.4 client for Ubuntu Linux.  I might just have to deploy an Ubuntu desktop somewhere to test this client.  But wait, there’s more.  New releases of the View client for Android and iPad tablets.  The Android client adds fixes for Ice Cream Sandwich devices, security stuff, and updates for the Kindle Fire (I need to get this installed on my wife’s Fire).  The updated iPad client improves both connection times as well as external display support but for the most part Apple fans are flipping out simply over something shiny and new.  Lastly, VMware created a one stop shop web portal for all client downloads which can be fetched at http://www.vmware.com/go/viewclients/

vShield 5.0.1 – Again, added support for vSphere 5.0 Update 1, enhanced reporting and export options, new REST API calls, improved audit logs, simplified troubleshooting, improved vShield App policy management as well as HA enhancements, and enablement of Autodeploy through vShield VIB host modules downloadable from vShield Manager.

So… looking at the compatibility matrix with all of these new code drops, my lab upgrade order will look something like this:

1a. View 5.0 –> View 5.0.1

1b. vCD 1.5 –> VCD 1.5.1

1c. SRM 5.0 –> SRM 5.0.1

1d. vShield App/Edge/Endpoint 5.0 –> 5.0.1

1e. vDR 2.0 –> Go Fish

2. vSphere Client 5.0.1 (it’s really not an upgrade, installs parallel with other versions)

3. vCenter Server 5.0 –> vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1

4. Update Manager 5.0 –> Update Manager 5.0 Update 1

5. ESXi 5.0 –> ESXi 5.0 Update 1

There are a lot of versions in play here which weaves somewhat of a tangled web of compatibility touch points to identify before diving head first into upgrades.  I think VMware has done a great job this time around with releasing products that are, for the most part, compatible with other currently shipping products which provides more flexibility in tactical approach and timelines.  Add to that, some time ago they’ve migrated a two dimensional .PDF based compatibility matrix into an online portal offering interactive input making the set of results customized for the end user.  The only significant things missing in the vSphere 5.0U1 compatibility picture IMO are vCloud Connector, vDR, and based on the results from the compatibility matrix portal – vCenter Operations (output showed no compatibility with vSphere 5.x, didn’t look right to me).  I’ve taken a liberty in creating a component compatibility visual roadmap including most of the popular and currently shipping products vSphere 5.0 and above.  If you’ve got a significant amount of infrastructure to upgrade, this may help you get the upgrade order sorted out quickly.  One last thing – Lab Manager and ESX customers should pay attention to the Island of Misfit Toys.  In early 2013 the Lab Manager ride comes coasting to a stop.  Lab Manager and ESX customers should be formulating solid migration plans with an execution milestone coming soon.

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VMware vCenter as a vCloud Director vApp

February 27th, 2012

Snagit CaptureThe way things work out, I tend to build a lot of vCenter Servers in the lab.  Or at least it feels like I do.  I need to test this.  A customer I’m meeting with wants to specifically see that.  I need don’t want to taint or impact an existing vCenter Server which may already be dedicated to something else having more importance.  VMware Site Recovery Manager is a good example.  Each time I bring up an environment I need a pair of vCenter Servers which may or not be available.  Whatever the reason, I’ve reached the point where I don’t need to experience the build process repeatedly.

The Idea

A while ago, I had stood up a private cloud for the Technical Solutions/Technical Marketing group at Dell Compellent.  I saved some time by leveraging that cloud environment to quickly provision platforms I could install vCenter Server instances on.  vCenter Servers as vApps – fantastic use case.  However, the vCenter installation process is lengthy enough that I wanted something more in terms of automated cookie cutter deployment which I didn’t have to spend a lot of time on.  What if I took one of the Windows Server 2008 R2 vApps from the vCD Organization Catalog, deployed it as a vApp, bumped up the vCPU and memory count, installed the vSphere Client, vCenter Server, licenses, a local MS SQL Express database, and the Dell Compellent vSphere client plug-in (download|demo video), and then added that vApp back to the vCD Organization Catalog?  Perhaps not such a supported configuration by VMware or Microsoft, but could I then deploy that vApp as future vCenter instances?  Better yet, build a vApp consisting of a pair of vCenter Servers for the SRM use case?  It sounded feasible.  My biggest concerns were things like vCenter and SQL Express surviving the name and IP address change as part of the vCD customization.

The POC

Although I ran into some unrelated customization issues which seemed to have something to do with vCD, Windows Server 2008 R2, and VMXNET3 vNICs (error message: “could not find network adapters as specified by guest customization. Log file is at c:\windows\temp\customize-guest.log.” I’ll save that for a future blog post if I’m able to root cause the problem), the Proof of Concept test results thus far have been successful.  After vCD customization, I was able to add vSphere 5 hosts and continue with normal operations from there.

Initially, I did run into one minor issue and that was hosts would fall into a disconnected status approximately two minutes after being connected to the vCenter Server.  This turned out to be a Windows Firewall issue which was introduced during the customization process.  Also, there were some red areas under the vCenter Service Status which pointed to the old instance name (most fixes for that documented well by Rick Vanover here, plus the vCenter Inventory Service cleanup at VMware KB 2009934).

The Conclusion

To The Cloud!  You don’t normally hear that from me on a regular basis but in this case it fits.  A lengthy and increasingly cumbersome task was made more efficient with vCloud Director and vSphere 5.  Using the Linked Clone feature yields both of its native benefits: Fast Provisioning and Space Efficiency.  I’ll continue to leverage vCD for similar and new use cases where I can.  Lastly, this solution can also be implemented with VMware Lab Manager or simply as a vSphere template.  Caveats being Lab Manager retires in a little over a year and a vSphere Template won’t be as space efficient as a Linked Clone.

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How to properly remove vSphere datastores

January 18th, 2012

Right click on the datastore object and choose Delete, right? Wrong.

Following are two good VMware articles outlining the correct procedure for removing datastores in a vSphere environment:

 

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Path Set for Dell Storage Forum 2012 London

January 11th, 2012

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In just a few days, Dell Storage Forum 2012 kicks off at the Grange St Paul’s Hotel in London. I will be in attendance and I hope that you will have the chance to join myself and the rest of the Dell staff and of course an array of storage customers, channel partners, enthusiasts, and analysts. At DSF your appetite will be satisfied with Executive lead Keynote sessions, Breakout sessions delivered by Technical Experts, Instructor lead training, and Hands-on/Self-Paced labs covering Compellent Storage Center, Dell EqualLogic, and PowerVault storage.

This venue won’t be an exact carbon copy of past DSF events. Dell Storage will be showcasing an updated product roadmap and we’ll also see new product announcements. One of the announcements you’ll hear about is the availability of Compellent Storage Center 6.0. As a Technical Marketing Product Specialist who spends all time working on the VMware integration points, this is a release I’ve been looking forward to since starting my career at Dell Compellent in May of last year. This is a significant launch for Dell Compellent from an architectural perspective. SC 6.0 now leverages the FreeBSD 64-bit platform. The 64-bit architecture is the springboard for new features launched this week (such as multithreading opportunities and 12GB memory per Series 40 controller) and will serve as a key enabler for future scalability, integration, and feature enhancements.

If you’re a current Dell Compellent customer with vSphere 4.1 or newer in your datacenter, you know that through SC 5.5.x we supported one VAAI primitive: Zero Blocks or Write Same. Storage Center 6.0 supports additional VMware vSphere VAAI primitives:

  • Copy Offload
  • Hardware Assisted Locking
  • Of course we still support Block Zeroing

On a side note, VMware also released a 4th VAAI primitive in vSphere 5 focusing on Thin Provisioning for block storage arrays.  However, shortly after the release, VMware pulled support on this primitive (applies to all storage vendors) to work out some kinks.  I wrote about that here.

VAAI excites me because of the performance and scalability gains it brings to the vSphere virtual datacenter in addition to vSphere bolt ons such as VMware View and vCloud Director.

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Compellent SC 6.0 VAAI support:

  • 41% faster block cloning operations on Eager Zeroed Thick and Lazy Zeroed Thick virtual disks
  • 98% faster Eager Zeroed Thick disk creation
  • Up to 100% reduction in Block Zeroing data traffic from host to storage
  • Offloaded operations result in significantly reduced copy traffic between host and storage
  • Offloaded operations result in reduction of ESX(i) host resource and storage fabric utilization

Find more details about VAAI at VMware KB 1021976 vStorage APIs for Array Integration FAQ.

This should be a really great week.  Personally, it will be my first Dell Compellent focused conference.  I do hope to see you there and look forward to some good discussions.  If you’re not able to attend in person, you can use these links to follow the action remotely:

Event Links:

Twitter/Social Media Links:

Other Links:

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VMware View 5.0 VDI vHardware 8 vMotion Error

September 20th, 2011

General awareness/heads up blog post here on something I stumbled on with VMware View 5.0.  A few weeks ago while working with View 5.0 BETA in the lab, I ran into an issue where a Windows 7 virtual machine would not vMotion from one ESXi 5.0 host to another.  The resulting error in the vSphere Client was:

A general system error occurred: Failed to flush checkpoint data

I did a little searching and found similar symptoms in VMware KB 1011971 which speaks to an issue that can arise  when Video RAM (VRAM) is greater than 30MB for a virtual machine. In my case it was greater than 30MB but I could not adjust it due to the fact that it was being managed by the View Connection Server.  At the same time, a VMware source on Twitter volunteered his assistance and quickly came up with some inside information on the issue.  He had me try adding the following line to /etc/vmware/config on the ESXi 5.0 hosts (no reboot required):

migrate.baseCptCacheSize = “16777216″

The fix worked and I was able to vMotion the Windows 7 VM back and forth between hosts.  The information was taken back to Engineering for a KB to be released.  That KB is now available: VMware KB 2005741 vMotion of a virtual machine fails with the error: A general system error occurred: Failed to flush checkpoint data! The new KB article lists the following background information and several workarounds:

Cause

Due to new features with Hardware Version 8 for the WDDM driver, the vMotion display graphics memory requirement has increased. The default pre-allocated buffer may be too small for certain virtual machines with higher resolutions. The buffer size is not automatically increased to account for the requirements of those new features if mks.enable3d is set to FALSE (the default).

Resolution

To work around this issue, perform one of these options:

  • Change the resolution to a single screen of 1280×1024 or smaller before the vMotion.
  • Do not upgrade to Virtual Machine Hardware version 8.
  • Increase the base checkpoint cache size. Doubling it from its default 8MB to 16MB (16777216 byte) should be enough for every single display resolution. If you are using two displays at 1600×1200 each, increase the setting to 20MB (20971520 byte).To increase thebase checkpoint cache size:

    1. Power off the virtual machine.
    2. Click the virtual machine in the Inventory.
    3. On the Summary tab for that virtual machine, click Edit Settings.
    4. In the virtual machine Properties dialog box, click the Options tab.
    5. Under Advanced, select General and click Configuration Parameters.
    6. Click Add Row.
    7. In the new row, add migrate. baseCptCacheSize to the name column and add 16777216 to the value column.
    8. Click OK to save the change.

    Note: If you don’t want to power off your virtual machine to change the resolution, you can also add the parameter to the /etc/vmware/config file on the target host. This adds the option to every VMX process that is spawning on this host, which happens when vMotion is starting a virtual machine on the server.

  • Set mks.enable3d = TRUE for the virtual machine:
    1. Power off the virtual machine.
    2. Click the virtual machine in the Inventory.
    3. On the Summary tab for that virtual machine, click Edit Settings.
    4. In the virtual machine Properties dialog box, click the Options tab.
    5. Under Advanced, select General and click Configuration Parameters.
    6. Click Add Row.
    7. In the new row, add mks.enable3d to the name column and add True to the value column.
    8. Click OK to save the change.
Caution: This workaround increases the overhead memory reservation by 256MB. As such, it may have a negative impact on HA Clusters with strict Admission Control. However, this memory is only used if the 3d application is active. If, for example, Aero Basic and not Aero Glass is used as a window theme, most of the reservation is not used and the memory could be kept available for the ESX host. The reservation still affects HA Admission Control if large multi-monitor setups are used for the virtual machine and if the CPU is older than a Nehalem processor and does not have the SSE 4.1 instruction set. In this case, using 3d is not recommended. The maximum recommended resolution for using 3d, regardless of CPU type and SSE 4.1 support, is 1920×1200 with dual screens.

The permanent fix for this issue did not make it into the recent View 5.0 GA release but I expect it will be included in a future release or patch.

Update 12/23/11: VMware released five (5) non-critical patches last week.  One of those patches is ESXi500-201112401-SG which permanently resolves the issues described above.  Full patch details below:

Summaries and Symptoms

This patch updates the esx-base VIB to resolve the following issues:

  • Updates the glibc third party library to resolve multiple security issues.
    The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2010-0296, CVE-2011-0536, CVE-2011-1071, CVE-2011-1095, CVE-2011-1658 and CVE-2011-1659 to these issues.
  • When a hot spare disk that is added to a RAID group is accessed before the disk instance finishes initialization or if the disk is removed while an instance of it is being accessed, a race condition might occur causing the vSphere Client to not display information about the RAID controllers and the vSphere Client user interface might also not respond for a very long time.
  • vMotion fails with the A general system error occurred: Failed to flush checkpoint data!error message when:
    • The resolution of the virtual machines is higher than 1280×1024, or smaller if you are using a second screen
    • The guest operating system is using the WDDM driver (Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 2008, Windows Vista)
    • The virtual machine is using Virtual Machine Hardware version 8.
  • Creating host profiles of ESX i 5.0 hosts might fail when the host profile creation process is unable to resolve the hostname and IP address of the host by relying on the DNS for hostname and IP address lookup. An error message similar to the following is displayed:
    Call"HostProfileManager.CreateProfile" for object "HostProfileManager" on vCenter Server"<Server_Name> failed.
    Error extracting indication configuation: [Errno- 2] Name or service not known.
  • In vSphere 5.0, Thin Provisioning is enabled by default on devices that adhere to T10 standards. On such thin provisioned LUNs, vSphere issues SCSI UNMAP commands to help the storage arrays reclaim unused space. Sending UNMAP commands might cause performance issues with operations such as snapshot consolidation or storage vMotion.
    This patch resolves the issue by disabling the space reclamation feature, by default.
  • If a user subscribes for an ESXi Server’s CIM indications from more that one client (for example, c1 and c2) and deletes the subscription from the first client (c1), the other clients (C2) might fail to receive any indication notification from the host.

This patch also provides you with the option of configuring the iSCSI initiator login timeout value for software iSCSI and dependent iSCSI adapters.
For example, to set the login timeout value to 10 seconds you can use commands similar to the following:

  • ~ # vmkiscsi-tool -W -a "login_timeout=10" vmhba37
  • ~ # esxcli iscsi adapter param set -A vmhba37 -k LoginTimeout -v 10

The default login timeout value is 5 seconds and the maximum value that you can set is 60 seconds.
We recommend that you change the login timeout value only if suggested by the storage vendor.

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